Hitler’s Northern Line Shaking and Breaking

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 52, 4 March 1944, Page 5

Hitler’s Northern Line Shaking and Breaking

Greatest Russian Offensive of War (By Telegraph—Press Assn.-Copyright.) Received Saturday, 1 a.m. LONDON, March S. Powerful Red Army spearheads are rapidly gaining ground in battles for the last miles separating them from Latvia, reports Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Hitler’s northern winter line from Narva to Vitebsk is shaking and breaking before one of the greatest Russian offensives of the war. The Russians are pushing in the diminishing salient west of the line between Dno and Sokolniki. Columns irom the northeast and southeast are both under ten miles from Ostrov on which they are advancing southwards. Ostrov is an ancient fortress town which the Germans developed as a hedgehog position incorporating the old fortifications in new strongpoints. It is the centre of several main roads and a keypoint on the Germans’ last southwestern railway from Pskov which the Russians are threatening. The fall of Ostrov would help the Russians to outflank Pskov. The railway from Pskov to Ostrov is already under gunfire. The Russians further north are also tightening their grip on the railway west of Narva. The Moscow radio says the report of the withdrawal of some German troops irom the Russian front for service in the west is about as true as the report that Hitler is inspecting the Germans annihilated in the captured Kanev trap. Another broadcast from Moscow stated that the Germans deported 10,000 people from Kherson. The Gestapo is getting nervous over partisans’ attacks against German defences in this area.